#CphSW Challenge together with Nets

This is part of our challenges for the upcoming Startup Weekend. This challenge is provided by Nets. They will also be present during the weekend as mentor on Saturday, so the teams has a chance to talk about solutions and ideas.

Terminating Terminals

Payment terminals have been there forever. We experience them as solid, secure and trust worthy. Some years ago, everyone also had secure and trust worthy dial phones, that phone companies saw un-wired by GSM, wireless and ultimately mobile phones. Amazon recently launched the Amazon Go store where, using biometric and cognitive technologies, un-wired the traditional store, rendering payment terminals/cashiers, un-necessary.

Can you un-wire stores, but do it simpler than Amazon, un-wire the store without changing it?

Consider:

What underlying technologies are needed to replace terminals? Are these technologies readily available to all consumers/shops?

Are these technologies secure/reliable enough? If not, how would you improve security/reliability? What technological advancements are needed for these technologies to be more secure/reliable?

What kind of products/services/shops can be good candidates to replace their payment terminals? What would they require/have instead?

When, if at all, will consumers find use for a terminal free world? What’s in it for a consumer? Consider:

A millennial

A busy parent on the way to making dinner

A senior citizen

When, if it all, will merchants find use for a terminal free world? What’s in it for the merchant? Consider:

A big supermarket chain

An independent clothes shop

A restaurant/bar

Digital Fiat:

Blockchain, or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is advertised as a game changing technology. Its inherent properties: security, immutability, transparency, infinite audit trail , make it ideal for a range of financial use cases, as well as a disintermediating effect on many of traditional services by Banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, clearing houses.

Today, exchange of value is done via Fiat currencies. The currencies we all agree on and are regulated by the national bank. To exchange value on DLT, one would need to augment the it with traditional fiat currency systems. Yes, thers’s Bitcoin, but it will take some time before we get our salaries in Bitcoin….

How can we transform DLT into a true value exchange, and not only value recording/management, system? What, if any, are the use cases for a digital currency? Consider:

What is the scope? National, municipal, local neighbourhood?

Who would be interested in such a currency, within the scope e.g. authorities, municipalities?

Should it be issued by a central authority? If so, why? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

What can be pragmatic applications of such a digital currency, within the above assumptions? Consider: